RMD - Reasoning, Memory and Decision making (Prof. Ferrante)

Donatella Ferrante is Associate Professor in General Psychology at the University of Trieste since 2004.

She has got her master degree in Philosophy in 1986, and her Ph.D in Experimental Psychology in 1993 from the University of Trieste. In 1988 she has been honoured with a felloship from the CNR.

Donatella Ferrante has been scientific coordinator of research units of national research projects (CNR 1995, CNR 1996, PRIN 2004, PRIN 2006, Prin 2008) and Memoranda of Understanding signed by her Department and Local Goverments/Health Services.

Her main areas of research include thinking and decision-making, counterfactual emotions, work-related stress, health promotion, risk perception and medical communication. She heads the Thinking & Decision Lab at the Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste.

Donatella Ferrante has collaborated for years with colleagues from different European universities and she is the author of several national and internationals papers on peer-reviewed journals (e.g. Psychological Science; Journal of Experimental Psychology. General; Frontiers in Human Neuroscience; Safety Science), and of theoretical reviews in English and Italian books.

Info

Research

Thinking & Decision Lab current research interests include the following topics:

Counterfactual thinking. Research investigates (i) what kinds of couterfactual thoughts were generally produced, (ii) what purposes they serve and (iii) how the thoughts of what might have been influence affect, motivation and social judgments;

Work-related stress. Research is aimed at (i) developing psychometric instruments for the assessment of job stress at the organizational level and (ii) exploring the relationship between work-related stress dimensions, psychological outcomes (e.g,, perceived stress, job satisfaction and job motivation) and health problems;

Health Promotion. Research in this field is aimed at developing and testing interactive on-line assessment and intervention for reducing risky lifestyles.

Counterfactual Thinking

Much of the research on counterfactual thinking has been conducted using vignettes depicting hypothetical scenarios. Although it is typically assumed that the results obtained in these studies also apply to personally relevant counterfactual simulations, our recent studies raise questions about the extent to which the results from studies using vignettes are applicable to the process of counterfactual simulations about one’s own personal life. In particular, our studies have shown that some effects that were found when participants had to think about alternative outcomes to events described in vignettes do not hold when participants have to think about alternative ways in which their own past personal events could have occurred (Girotto, Ferrante, Pighin, & Gonzalez, 2007; Pighin, Byrne, Ferrante, Gonzalez, & Girotto, 2011). Hence, our results suggest that the current accounts of counterfactual thinking offer an incomplete picture and cast doubt on the generality of the previous studies’ conclusions.

Another recent line of research concerns the comparison between counterfactual thinking, and episodic future thinking. Ferrante, Girotto, Straga, and Walsh (2013) found that when participants thought counterfactually, their thoughts focused on uncontrollable features, whereas participants in the future condition thought about controllable features. We interpreted this temporal asymmetry in simulations as reflecting different constraints in the way each kind is deployed for strategizing about future actions. In another study (Mercier, Rolison, Stragà, Ferrante, Walsch & Girotto, 2016), we showed that this temporal asymmetry occurs regardless of whether individuals think about their failures or their successes and that unless participants are explicitly prompted to generate useful thoughts they fail to generate controllable counterfactuals. Finally, in the most recent research we replicated and extended previous finding in a more ecological setting. Athletes, who have just run a marathon, were asked to generate counterfactual or prefactual thoughts. The results showed the same temporal asymmetry. In addition, we found that focusing on training instead of other elements resulted in a greater intention to train harder for the next marathon in prefactual condition, but not in counterfactual condition.

Work-related stress

We have translated and validated an Italian adaptation of the HSE Management Standards Work-Related Stress Indicator Tool (HSE-MS IT), an instrument for assessing work-related stress at the organizational level, originally developed in Britain by the Health and Safety Executive. The psychometric properties of this adapted version have been extensively studied in samples composed of public and private sector employees, confirming the instruments’ reliability and validity (internal, construct and concurrent) (Marcatto, D’Errico, Di Blas, & Ferrante, 2011; Marcatto, Colautti, Larese Filon, Luis, & Ferrante, 2014; Marcatto, Colautti, Larese Filon, Di Blas, Cavallero & Ferrante, 2016). Moreover, we have found a specific sensitivity of the HSE-MS IT scales to assess different aspects of work-related distress, including self-perception of stress at work, job satisfaction and job motivation, and to predict physical and psychological pathologies, such as gastrointestinal disorders, insomnia, anxiety and depression. These results can have practical implications for the occupational well-being of employees.

Development and testing of an on-line intervention for reducing risky lifestyles

There is strong evidence that screening and brief interventions are effective in reducing risks factors associated with modifiable lifestyles, such as alcohol consumption and physical inactivity. Our research in this field is aimed at developing and testing interactive on-line assessment and intervention for reducing risky lifestyles. Starting from the original British website "Down Your Drink", whose effectiveness has already been tested empirically, we have developed an Italian web site dedicated to online brief intervention in primary care for reducing alcohol consumption and the harms associated with hazardous drinking (www.itatvb.it). We have conducted an usability test of the website (heuristic evaluation and user testing, Tognolli, Marcatto, Plet, Struzzo, Wallace, & Ferrante, 2014), and its applicability in clinical practice has been evaluated by a research involving general practitioners working in Friuli Venezia Giulia (EFAR-FVG Trial, Struzzo et al., 2013). Starting from these results, we developed a new website for testing and providing brief intervention in the following risky lifestyles: alcohol consumption, smoking, and nutrition.